Barbara Fuller, who lived and breathed project
management in her personal life as well as her
professional life, died on January 5, 2015. She
died of complications due to illness. When many
of us heard of Barbara’s death, we were shocked and
saddened.

PMINJ grieves the passing of our chapter and board
member, Barbara. She has been an active member of our
chapter for many years and served as our Vice
President of Marketing since being elected in 2011.
Barbara's leadership of the marketing team enabled the
chapter to win the 2014 Global PMI Chapter Award for
Excellence in Collaboration & Outreach.

As Vice President of Marketing, Barbara worked with
passion and integrity. She was always willing to
share her ideas and information. During her
funeral eulogy it was said that you just didn’t meet
Barbara, you experienced Barbara. How completely
true! Even if you did not always agree with
Barbara, you respected her. Barbara was known
for using the phrase “connect the dots,” and many
times Barbara was connecting dots that we had not even
seen yet!

Barbara used to say, “I believe that we are put here
on this earth for a purpose. The adventure is to
find that purpose and to live it. The real fun is
opening the ‘gifts’ that you have been given, using
them and sharing them.”

Barbara had many gifts, and one of her passions was
collaboration and community outreach. To her
credit as a leader, her PMINJ marketing team members
are picking up right where Barbara left off and will
continue to fulfill her vision. One such program
that she was working on for academic outreach is in
progress currently with Montclair State
University. The PMI New Jersey Chapter will
honor her memory in an ongoing award in her name to
benefit PMINJ members and local organizations.
We look forward to high member participation!

We have lost a colleague, friend and mentor. Barbara
leaves a legacy of creativity, collaboration,
compassion and faith. She "connected the dots" and
connected to our hearts. We honor her memory, and she
will be greatly missed.

Chapter Announcements

Reminders - PMINJ Awards

The chapter is actively soliciting nominations for
Awards:

Project of the Year

The purpose of the Award is to recognize, honor,
publicize, and celebrate the accomplishments of the
Project Team involved in the Project of the Year (POY)
for superior performance and execution of exemplary
project management.

Any project with some or all team members located in the
State of New Jersey, coordinated by a NJ based company,
or completed within NJ that is perceived as having
effectively applied project management principles and
techniques is eligible to submit.

The deadline to submit applications is 01 March 2015.

If you have any questions regarding the POY, please send
an email to
or contact Louis
A. Vazquez (Director, Project Awards) at 908-799-3006.

(1) an undergraduate scholarship for current high school
seniors who are sons / daughters / legal dependents of
PMINJ members in good standing for undergraduate work at
a four year college or university.

(2) a renewal scholarship for previous PMINJ scholarship
winners that are dependents of PMINJ members in good
standing.

(3) a college graduate scholarship for those who
are current PMINJ members in good standing - and who are
seeking a Master's degree in Project Management.

The deadline to submit applications is 02 March 2015.

If you have any questions regarding the Scholarships,
please send an email to
or
contact Marianne Burke (Director, Scholarships) at
973-884-2478.

Event Reports

PMINJ School Outreach Team Returns to BSA Merit Badge
Workshop

By Michael Vitale

On Saturday, November 22, 2014, the PMINJ School Outreach
team spent the day teaching project management
fundamentals to BSA Eagle Scout candidates. The training
course was delivered by PMINJ members Dennis McCarthy and
Mike Vitale at the Patriot's Path Merit Badge Workshop in
Parsippany. The Scouts were introduced to the five
core PM processes of Initiating, Planning, Executing,
Monitoring / Controlling and Closing projects. The
training tied PM skills to the Eagle Scout Service Project
that all candidates must successfully complete before
attaining the Eagle Scout rank. Each session was
interactive and well-received by the Scouts and BSA
leadership.

If you know of an organization that can benefit from the
introductory course, please contact Mike Vitale at
.

On Saturday,
January 17, 2015, the PMINJ School Outreach team spent the
day at the Future City competition held at Rutgers
University's Livingston Campus in Piscataway Township. The
Future City Competition is a national, project-based
learning experience where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th
grade imagine, design, and build cities of the future.
Students work as a team with an educator and engineer
mentor to plan cities, build tabletop scale models and
present their ideas before judges. The School
outreach team was joined by several PMINJ board members
who presented "An introduction to Project
Management" to over 250 students from across New
Jersey. During five different training sessions both
students and educators had a great time while discussing
project management fundamentals and other important life
skills.

Special thanks to PMINJ board members Linda Schaldonat,
Dennis McCarthy, Judy Balaban and John Tse for their
assistance pictured below with me between Dennis and
Judy. In addition to Alpesh Dharia and Mike Vitale,
both Judy and Dennis delivered fun and interactive
presentations to the students.

The School Outreach team is the creation of Barbara Fuller
and is now enjoying its second year. If you know of
an organization that can benefit from the introductory
course, please contact Mike Vitale at
.

PM Articles

Spotlight on Project Management in Various Industries:
Publishing

By Rose Therese Sullivan, PMP

Editor's Note: Project management skills and
methodologies are utilized frequently in a variety of
industries. This article is the first in a series
highlighting their use and application in various
professions.

Publishing falls under the category of Information
Services. Within the field of publishing, project
management has long been used extensively in the
Information Technology realm supporting the completion of
systems infrastructure projects to handle manuscript
tracking, to contracts and licensing, distribution and
finally customer support and royalty payments. For a long
time, standardized products and workflows did not require
concentrated project management skills for editorial,
production, or marketing staff. Recently, seismic shifts
in the way content is produced and used have changed the
industry, which has experienced major churn in the last
decade, particularly accelerated in the last five years.

Market demand for publications offered in customized
print and electronic formats has driven the industry to
transform itself from publishers of content, to
content-enabled service providers. Products are becoming
unique in nature, requiring unique production, marketing,
and distribution plans. In this environment, project
management skills and PMP certification are emerging as
must-haves across all functional positions in the
industry, and no longer relegated only to the IT sector
within the field.

Below are a few examples of different roles and the PM
skills required:

Content Manager: An Editorial Role. Content is
the term for the assets—text, video, audio, code,
etc..., that make-up a product. Content managers curate
existing content to create new products. A look at this
position on www.payscale.com reveals that “Survey
respondents exploit a significant toolbox of skills in
their work. Most notably, skills in Project Management
[. . .] are correlated to pay that is above average.”

Production Editor: A Production Role. A
production editor produces new content in various print
electronic formats. This position is responsible for
meeting quality, scheduling, and cost requirements for
the print and electronic deliverables. Editing,
proofreading, and project management are the popular
skills associated with this position.

Project Manager, Marketing: A Marketing Role.
This is a fairly recent title in publishing, although it
possesses similar responsibilities to the titles,
Director of Marketing or Marketing Manager. The role
creates campaigns for marketing the content offerings
which are generally a combination of content and
services. Here, too, payscale.com reports “Marketing
Project Managers seem to exploit a large range of skills
on the job. Most notably, skills in . . . Project
Management [. . .] are correlated to pay that is above
average.”

Publishing is just one example of an industry which is
increasingly requiring project management skills and PMP
certification to adequately meet strategic goals as well
as handle day-to-day operations. Other professions utilize
these skills on a daily basis as well, and will be the
focus in upcoming issues.

Make a Plan to Earn Your PDUs

By Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM

As a Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential
holder, you must earn 60 Professional Development Units
(PDUs) every three years to maintain your certification
status in good standing. Not obtaining the required 60
PDUs within your certification cycle will lead to your
credential being suspended. That is the last thing you
want to happen, but life being what it is, you probably
have family commitments, work- and
social-organization commitments, to name just a few,
that are also important to you and probably a little
more in the forefront of your life than earning PDUs. If
you are anything like most others, as soon as you passed
the PMP® Exam, you knew earning those 60 PDUs would be
easy and you were going to start on it as soon as you
got home, but time passes quickly, sometimes too
quickly. So, it is not at all unusual to get well into
the third year of your certification cycle and suddenly
realize you are nowhere close to obtaining the 60 PDUs
you need to ensure your certification stays in good
standing.

So what do you do to make sure you do not find yourself
struggling to earn PDUs late in your certification
cycle? What can you do to make sure earning PDUs is as
much in the forefront as other aspects of your life?
Well, being a project manager you have the necessary
tools to approach earning PDUs as a project by making a
plan. Below are some steps to keep in mind when
developing a plan to help make sure you earn those
required 60 PDUs.

Step 1:

Understand the PDU Categories. Read over the Continuing
Certification Requirements (CCR) Program section in the
PMP Handbook to learn about the six categories in which
PDUs can be earned. Set a goal for how many PDUs per
category you would like to earn over the next three
years. Keep in mind that for the PMP® certification some
categories limit the maximum PDUs you can earn per
three-year certification cycle.

Step 2:

Make earning PDUs a habit. Identify repeating PDU
activities that you can participate in. Maybe attending
dinner meetings with your local PMI Chapter works best
for you. This is a good option especially if you have
been thinking of networking and meeting other PMP
credential holders.

Step 3:

Develop a plan. After you have decided what categories
you would like to earn PDUs in; found local chapter
meetings to attend; or subscribed to monthly webinars,
develop a plan to earn those 60 PDUs. Make sure to take
into account such things as planned vacations and other
times when you will not be available to earn PDUs. There
may be some months where you will need to earn more than
the 1.67 PDUs needed per month to keep on track to earn
the 60 PDUs. Planning for those events now and
determining when you will make up PDUs in later months
will help you make sure you do not fall behind in your
plan for earning PDUs

Step 4:

Set up reminders for yourself. With the prevalence of
smart phones and other hand held devices your calendar
can be at your fingertips. Set up reminders for yourself
to earn PDUs based on your plan.

Step 5:

Execute your plan. As a project manager you should be an
expert at executing plans, and this one is personal, so
it should be an easy one to achieve.

Step 6:

Report your PDUs. Each time you earn PDUs, immediately
log on to http://ccrs.pmi.org and take care of two
things. One, input the PDUs you have earned, and two
check the number of PDUs you have earned to make sure
you are on target with your plan.

Step 7:

Apply for credential renewal. Once you have earned the
60 required PDUs, don’t forget to apply for credential
renewal before your certification cycle ends.

Earning PDUs can be easy; the hard part is remembering
to do so regularly. The steps to earning the PDUs you
need to maintain your PMP certification are as easy as
understanding the PDU categories, making earning PDUs a
habit, developing a plan, setting up reminders,
executing the plan, reporting earned PDUs, and finally
applying for credential renewal.

New Certificate Holders

The following have received their
certifications since the last newsletter (through 31 December
2014):

Article Submission & Publication
Information

Editor Kristine
Clark

Submissions:

Where to Send: Contact the newsletter editor,
at
for newsletter related items, to submit articles and to
provide feedback. All members are invited to submit
articles, meeting reviews, or other items of interest
for publication.